Part 1

• China has been very much a divided nation since the fall of the Qing dynasty
• Chiang Kai-shek


  Leader of a nationalist movement called the Guomindang (GMD)
• Northern Expedition


  1. Chiang Kai-shek sends his armies to the north of China to try to bring in territories not under his control yet, up to and including Manchuria

  2. Leads to a split between the GMD led by Chiang Kai-shek and the Chinese Communist Party led by Mao Zedong, resulting in civil conflict
• There is political instability in Japan, with disagreements between the political leadership, the emperor, prime ministers, and the military over who is pulling the strings of Japanese foreign policy
• Zhang Xueliang


  A Manchurian warlord with desires to push into China to unify more territory under his control
• The Japanese military called the Kwantung Army assassinates Zhang Xueliang


  Without the emperor's sanction, showing the Japanese political authority does not have control of the military
• The Great Depression beginning in 1929 in the US impacts every country in the world that does business overseas, devastating Japan's economy which relied on imports and exports
• The US launches the Smoot-Hawley Tariff Act


  Increases the price of Japanese imports by 200%, crushing Japanese exports
• The Great Depression pushes the Japanese military and political leadership to feel the need to acquire their own raw materials, seeing Manchuria as a source
• Lebensraum


  Living space for an ever-growing Japanese population
• Mukden Incident


  1. The Kwantung Army claims an explosion at a Japanese-owned railway in Manchuria was done by the Chinese, using this as a pretext to seize Manchuria

  2. By early 1932, Manchuria is completely under Japanese control
• Fighting breaks out in Shanghai, with the Japanese air force bombing the city, leading Chiang Kai-shek to concede control of Manchuria to Japan in the Treaty of Tanggu in May 1933
• Manchukuo


  The puppet state established by Japan in Manchuria, with the last Qing emperor Puyi as its nominal ruler
• The crisis deepens tensions between Japan and Western powers, leading to Japan's abandonment of internationalism and the League of Nations condemning its actions
• The GMD focuses on defeating the Chinese Communist Party, while Japan benefits from Manchuria's resources
• Japan's military is now definitively pulling the strings of the democratically elected government and even the emperor